On Monday morning Ai told AFP that more than four million yuan of his 15 million yuan tax bill had already been donated. But the news agency said that by the early afternoon, that sum had risen to 5.29 million yuan.

Ai told the BBC:

"These donations are not just about money, they're an expression of people's feelings about what's happened ... I can only say that I'm very grateful and very touched by their actions."

A posting on the social networking site Twitter by, a volunteer at Ai’s studio, Liu Yanping, said that almost 20,000 people have so far donated.

However, in an editorial, the state-run Global Times newspaper said Monday that Ai could be charged with "illegal fundraising" for accepting contributions for his tax bill, AFP reported.